# Magic: the Gathering Club



## Aisling (Aug 9, 2012)

*Magic: the Gathering*
_
is the first collectible card game, created by Richard Garfield and introduced in 1993 by Wizards of the Coast. _Magic_ continues to thrive, with approximately twelve million players as of 2011.

In _Magic_, you play the role of a planeswalker—a powerful  wizard who fights other planeswalkers for glory, knowledge, and  conquest.
---
_Hey, guys! As you may well be aware, I play _Magic: the Gathering_. A lot. Not really at a professional level or anything, but I enjoy it quite a bit and love discussing it. I know a couple other members who also play- a couple people on #tcod as well as a couple members who frequent the forums. I figured it was high time to start a club so we can begin to organize ourselves a little!

If you somehow don't know, _Magic: the Gathering_ is a trading card game. As stated above, you take the role of a powerful wizard having magical duels with other wizards. Your deck of cards, or "library", represents all the weapons in your arsenal. It  contains the spells you know and the creatures you can summon to fight  for you. It's well-developed and very flavorful. Whether you like working out the most efficient winning strategies, coming up with crazy infinite combos or just controlling the biggest monsters, _Magic_ has it all!

If you do know _Magic_ but don't play, that's likely because it's admittedly a relatively expensive hobby with rules that look a bit complex. But it's definitely accessible! There are tutorials online, as well as ways to play online! Free! So if you don't know anyone else who plays, have a local Friday Night Magic venue, or have the money to shell out on the cards, I hope this will be the place for you if you want to try it!

If you already know how to play or do play and just can't get enough, I also hope to start a community of players here! With enough participation we can possibly have our own events, whether they be standard, draft, sealed, EDH, you name it!
---
*Resources*
*MagictheGathering.com*
_Official website. News, downloads, interesting articles. All that jazz._
Learn to play
_Includes videos and a downloadable interactive demo_
Official Rules
_Includes downloadable rulebook, FAQs, and lists of banned/restricted cards_
Formats
_Overviews of sanctioned (standard, constructed, limited, drafting, etc) to casual (Commander/EDH, and others) formats
_Gatherer
_Searchable database of all cards. Includes up-to-date rulings of cards and updated versions of outdated cards' text_

MTG Salvation
_Articles and spoilers for forthcoming sets. Yay!_
their wiki
_If you want to read up on the history of the game, IRL or lore, this wiki has a lot of info!_

mtgfan.tumblr
_One of the biggest Magic-centric tumblogs, if you're the tumblr type. Covers many topics, from rules to art to the fan community and even the occasional spoiler._

Tales from the Pit
_Maro's tumblog. Insight into in research & development, if you're interested in that._

Forge
_A program that lets you play against an AI  opponent using most of the rules of a real game. You can construct decks  for you and the computer to  play with, and you can also play in a sealed deck format against the computer. No multiplayer currently available, though._

*Cockatrice*
_An open-source multiplatform software for playing Magic! Club-sanctioned games will be played using this.
__Linux version compiled by sreservoir_



Spoiler: Quick Guide to Using Cockatrice



Keyboard Shortcuts
*ctrl+i* roll die
*ctrl+s* shuffle library
*ctrl+m* draw starting hand/mulligan
*ctrl+d* draw a card
*ctrl+shift+d* undo last draw
*ctrl+w *look at top cards of library
*ctrl+u *untap all permanents
*ctrl+t *create token
*ctrl+j *copy highlighted permanent
*ctrl+p *set power/toughness of highlighted creature
*ctrl+L *set life total
Left click your life to increase by 1. Right click to decrease by 1.
To highlight multiple cards, left click and drag your cursor to draw a box over them. They can be moved together and tapped/untapped together. Click anything besides/outside them to unhighlight.
Double-clicking your library also draws a card. Double-clicking a card in your hand plays it automatically to its appropriate location (the stack, battlefield, or land zone). Most cards that enter play tapped automatically tap themselves if you play them this way.​


CCGDecks
_Multiplayer, real-time drafting simulator, and sealed pool generator. If we do sealed events, we'll go here first to get the cards and then build decks with them using Cockatrice. Requires registration, but it's short._

TappedOut
_Online deck builder, if you want to browse or share decklists. Also has a drafting simulator with more sets than CCGDecks', so for draft events we'll use this. You also have to register, but you can also connect it via Facebook._
---
*Members*
Alraune
Gym Leader Shizui
Blastoise Fortooate
Zero Moment
Negrek
Ven
ultraviolet
nyuu
Coloursfall
Sunflower
sreservoir
Adrian Malacoda
Birdy
Storm, Earth, and Fire
Lirris

*Event/Project Ideas*
Starter decks
Unglued/Unhinged game night
Regularly scheduled club fun-deck night​


----------



## Zexion (Aug 9, 2012)

Count me in! I love the game. (learned it at Nerd Camp)


----------



## Blastoise Fortooate (Aug 9, 2012)

I'm _interested _in Magic but I don't play it! I downloaded Cockatrice recently but if a beginning player is a baby, then I am a somewhat-formed fetus. THE LORE IS SO COOL THOUGH and I have a very very tentative knowledge of how the game itself is played.


----------



## Zero Moment (Aug 9, 2012)

Man this game is pretty cool
Even though I haven't actually played it.


----------



## Aisling (Aug 9, 2012)

I'mma go ahead and count you in Blastoise since lore discussion is encouraged as well :D I'm only just now brushing up on it... it's a lot more in-depth than I would've thought. There's like, novels an comics and everything *_*

Glad we already have a couple of interested people! :3

edit: woah ninja'd! Well hopefully we'll remedy that Zero >:o


----------



## Blastoise Fortooate (Aug 9, 2012)

To be clear, I intend on playing the game eventually. Just not quite at the moment, since I need to have a better grasp on gameplay first.


----------



## Negrek (Aug 9, 2012)

yes all of the MtG all of it

I'm very, very up on the lore from about Invasion through Mirrodin, since in middle/high school I totally bought and read all the associated books. (They are so, so terrible. I loved them to pieces. :P Also, if you want any I'll totally give you some for free, since they're mostly just taking up space these days.)


----------



## Aisling (Aug 9, 2012)

One of the local game shops has a couple of Magic novels, prerevisionist ones I think. I've seen some graphic novels at the bookstore too. I'd kinda like a copy of _Planeswalker's Guide to Alara_ because it apparently has lots of pretty arts in it... And after working on my EDH deck and reading the lore of the creatures and planeswalkers I'm putting in it I'm pretty interested in Alara in general.

By Mirrodin do you mean Mirrodin or Mirrodin Beseiged? Around here people call Mirrodin Beseiged just Mirrodin for short because the original Mirrodin block isn't topical anymore...


----------



## Zero Moment (Aug 9, 2012)

For my decks I have Sliver Evolution, Simic Mutology, Aurochs Stampede, and Rituals of Rebirth. (and some others?)

What about you guys?


----------



## Ven (Aug 9, 2012)

I would love to join. Just started playing a few months ago. Vampires and Sorin all the way.


----------



## Aisling (Aug 9, 2012)

I have a couple decks that I bring to FNM usually. One is a red/green deck that prominently features creatures with Haste and/or Undying, especially Strangleroot Geist and Hellrider.

The other is a black/red vampire deck that used to focus on the vampires that get +1/+1 counters for doing combat damage to your opponent and Proliferating them, but since the Proliferate mechanic is rotating out soon I've taken out Curse of the Stalked Prey and the Proliferate spells and replaced them with Blood Artists and Killing Wave. It's a pretty sick combo. Oh, and of course Vampire Nighthawk is in it now too. He's one of my favorite vampires ever and is super mean with Rakish Heir.

Also, I've been working on an EDH deck with Karrthus as my commander. I'm only 16 cards away from finishing it, unfortunately those cards I'm missing add up to almost forty bucks :/

After I finish my EDH deck I want to start working on a black/green deck featuring Vampire Nighthawk, Rancor and Wolfir Silverheart. Either that, or white/blue with Delver of Secrets, Invisible Stalker and stuff with Exalted. I'm still playtesting that one trying to get it to work consistently.

And welcome to the fold, Ven! High-five for vampires


----------



## Ven (Aug 9, 2012)

Cool, another Vampire user. I usually use a black/red EDH deck with Olivia as general. So far, no real idea behind the deck other then get a large amount of creatures on the field and power Olivia up as much as possible before utterly destroying whomever I'm facing. And Vampire Nighthawk will forever be my favourite. He helped me win my first match after all.


----------



## ultraviolet (Aug 9, 2012)

I am interested I suppose! All my friends play it and I'd like to get into it but I can't really justify buying cards right now because money. :/ almost all of the illustrations are amazing so I'm automatically into it I guess. It does look really fun to play.


----------



## Aisling (Aug 9, 2012)

Ven said:


> Cool, another Vampire user. I usually use a black/red EDH deck with Olivia as general. So far, no real idea behind the deck other then get a large amount of creatures on the field and power Olivia up as much as possible before utterly destroying whomever I'm facing. And Vampire Nighthawk will forever be my favourite. He helped me win my first match after all.


I just find myself attracted to tribal decks for some reason. My very first standard-legal deck I built was all Myrs. I don't think I ever took it to FNM because it was a bit slow, but I'm never going to dismantle it, because when it works it's fucking hilarious. It abuses the hell out of Unwinding Clock, Myr Turbine and Myr Battlesphere. Once in a multiplayer game, thanks to Unwinding Clock, I pulled out all four of my Myr Battlespheres before it was my turn again. Once the turn did come back to me it was game over. :D It also has the infinite mana combo of Myr Galvinizer and Palladium Myr, which used to be an infinite token-spawning combo with Myr Propagator thrown into the mix, but Propogator ended up being too slow and it ran a lot more smoothly with Hovermyr and the like instead.

OH MAN SPEAKING OF TRIBAL DECKS I forgot all about my precious bby Legacy Elves deck. It's not technically complete, as I still need a couple more Priest of Titania and three more Wirewood Lodge (I'm using printed proxies slipped into sleeves with basic lands so the thickness is the same), but anybody who wants to play Legacy with me generally doesn't care. :B It gets hella crazy hella fast. One FNM between rounds I played it with another guy's elf deck and totally stomped him. He had a couple of life-gaining elves that counted for every elf in play whose name I forgot (whereas I had Priest of Titania, who also does that but instead of life she generates green mana). It looked like he was going to overwhelm me by sheer amount of life (we were building creatures at the same rate but he was gonna take a lot of effort to take down), but then I topdecked Genesis Wave and cast it for, like, 30 mana or something. I pulled out the rest of my Archdruids, my Elvish Champion, two Coat of Arms, Nissa Revane, Eldrazi Monument and Emrakul. Along with like 20something more elves. It was great


----------



## Negrek (Aug 9, 2012)

Alraune said:


> By Mirrodin do you mean Mirrodin or Mirrodin Beseiged? Around here people call Mirrodin Beseiged just Mirrodin for short because the original Mirrodin block isn't topical anymore...


Mirrodin-Mirrodin. It was the last block I played in to any significant degree.



Alraune said:


> He had a couple of life-gaining elves that counted for every elf in play whose name I forgot...


Well Wisher! Used to give my friends no end of trouble.

The only decks I have left are the remains of my white/black cleric deck, which was my first successful deck, and a blue affinity deck.


----------



## Aisling (Aug 10, 2012)

I've edited in a list of important shortcuts and handy tips for Cockatrice into the OP, for those who haven't used Cockatrice before. I hope they'll come in handy.

Even though I left the list of resources, I still want to make some kind of fun thing for the people who don't know how to play so it's not completely up to them to teach themselves on their own time. Any ideas? I think a good place to start might be something, like, designing a deck of each color/major archetype that is simple, not too tricky, friendly to new players but properly conveys what those colors are about. The Johnny in me likes sitting around and designing decks


----------



## Ven (Aug 10, 2012)

Ok so, Cockatrice will allow you to build  any deck you want for any format with any card you wish (barring restricted of course) correct?


----------



## Aisling (Aug 10, 2012)

Yep. You can have access to every card in the Deck Builder (even the weird Vanguard stuff if you check those in the Oracle when you're downloading the sets), but if you try to load a deck with a card that's banned/restricted in that format it'll tell you, and not let you use it. Except for, like, Standard I guess. One time my boyfriend accidentally put Ajani Goldmane (M11) instead of Ajani, Caller of the Pride (M13) in one of the Standard decks he was playtesting and it didn't say anything about it. He didn't notice until he actually played it and it had the wrong abilities :B


----------



## Coloursfall (Aug 10, 2012)

MOOGIC.

I mainly run a Jund deck, so Red/Black/Green, focusing on Red and the Devour keyword, naturally. I also have a pure White, and a really fun Blue/White deck for online. I play on Cockatrice! my username is, naturally, Coloursfall.


----------



## see ya (Aug 10, 2012)

Welp. Colours got me into Magic, and now I've really gotten into it. 

I think you can tell just by looking at my sig and avi what colour I specialize in. Secondary colour tends to be black, but also some red or to a much, much lesser extent blue. Have yet to try white I'm still just a beginning player so I've yet to experiment with much else. I've had a fair bit of success with green decks and they fit my playstyle to a T.

Cockatrice name is shiny sunflower (no caps)


----------



## Aisling (Aug 10, 2012)

:3 Welcome, guys! (it was actually Colours posting in the fwee thread about his Jund deck that made me decide we probably have enough players floating around the forums that there should probably be a club by now)

I have a fondness for green even though I've been favoring my vampires at FNM lately (and obvs I like Jund because that's my EDH colors). My very, very first deck was actually white/green! They're good colors to start with, methinks. My boyfriend crafted it for me out of a mishmash of Zendikar block and Innistrad stuff, when Innistrad was new. It was shortly before we started dating so I think there were some ulterior motives involved, but that's fine. :B

Speaking of Innistrad, I'm surprised you two aren't all over that (or maybe you are and just didn't mention it)! It's full of dark spookies and things that go bump in the night. I dunno, it just seems like that'd be your cup of tea. :B Or at least Colours'.

(also Nissa is one of my favorite Planeswalkers, I never regretted buying her for my elf deck)


----------



## Coloursfall (Aug 10, 2012)

What would be fun some time is an Un set game using Cockatrice and Skype. I adore the Un sets, they're the funniest things, and the games with them get extremely silly. I have a White/Green Un Deck built around _"Our Market Research Shows That Players Like Really Long Card Names So We Made this Card to Have the Absolute Longest Card Name Ever Elemental_" and Wordmail. :B

Also I do seem to have some Innistrad cards in a few of my decks (mostly the white one though), but I'll put that block next on my 'look at ALL the cards!' things I do when I'm trying to relax. From what I've seen it looks neat.


----------



## Aisling (Aug 10, 2012)

Ooh! I think an Unglued/Unhinged draft would be pretty fun. CCGDecks' drafter and sealed generator don't have those sets, but TappedOut's does. I'll edit into the first post for future reference.
Anyone else want to give that a go? (and any more input on the deckbuilding for newbie members idea)


----------



## Zexion (Aug 10, 2012)

Coloursfall said:


> I play on Cockatrice! my username is, naturally, Coloursfall.





Sunflower said:


> Cockatrice name is shiny sunflower (no caps)


oh, i has a name there too!

Kialga


----------



## Aisling (Aug 10, 2012)

Are you guys actually registered on their website? You don't have to be, but it allows you to change your avatar and in the chat box in a game it'll use the right gender (ie instead of always saying "X draws his initial hand" it will say she if you're a she; it always kinda bugged me). And you can store decks on their server, so you can access your decks from other computers!

That and I'm not 100% sure you can add unregistered users as buddies. But I'll add you guys anyway whenever you're all on :v I'm Alraune (surprise surprise)


----------



## Coloursfall (Aug 10, 2012)

Yeah, me and Sunny are registered UuU We should play sometime! Maybe a big free-for-all haha. That could get nuts.


----------



## Zexion (Aug 10, 2012)

Alraune said:


> Are you guys actually registered on their website?


Yeppers!


----------



## Ven (Aug 11, 2012)

If anyone wants to add me, my name is Ven (oddly enough).


----------



## 1. Luftballon (Aug 11, 2012)

oh, hey, mtg is a thing.

... I mean, I haven't actually played in, like, uh, not-quite-arbitrarily-large units of time, and I haven't actually had _cards_ for even longer, but hey. is a thing.

so okay, I'll just go and grab this cockatrice thing — ... what, what do you mean there are binaries for windows and osx but linux just gets a "At the moment, please compile the source code yourselves (see below)." not _all_ of us a wizards, eh!

... also what the hell do you mean "see below", the part below contains information about the git repository and a "(see Documentation for instructions)."

anyway, why do I have no git on this thing — and that was a good few minutes or so.

anyway, documentation, eh? right. documentation. so, like, the documentation _sucks_. finding the right page takes a while, kind of annoying, that. compiling this thing is kind of non-trivial, but all we get is a pageful, eh? _not helpful_, we are not all wizards, eh!

and so anyway, ubuntu 11.04. okay, not overly problematic, at least I'm still running something debian-based, but what the hell, did I mention we are not all wizards? ... and anyway, _those_ installations take a good quarter-hour or thereabouts.

... and then, eh, compilation is done via cmake, eh? why the hell, then, does it not mention that, eh, _cmake needs to be installed_? because it does. ... and what do you mean I have to make the build directory myself, you couldn't, say, _stick it in a nice little build script_? because that's what the computer is for, eh, relieving ourselves of repetitive tasks. _why_, what.

so then, eh, actually running cmake. so whee, running up against a missing dependency. what the hell, didn't I _install a list of dependencies_ just now? that list was supposed to include your dependencies. _why are things missing_. ... that was another few minutes.

so _finally_, the cmake works — although it just barfs out my -DPREFIX which apparently isn't used — again, what, why would you not build in a reasonable way of changing install path, I had to go and mangle those makefiles, dammit, and that was kind of a pain. but okay.

but hey, now I have a cockatrice built. let's see if it works. if it does, I might put it somewhere or something, I guess.

and that's the story of how a res spent the past hour.

ed: but hey, it works, I stuck it on dropbox for whose linux happens to be able to run the executables I manage to build -- my uname -a spits out "Linux kirsten 3.2.0-23-lowlatency-pae #31-Ubuntu SMP PREEMPT Wed Apr 11 04:07:36 UTC 2012 i686 i686 i386 GNU/Linux"; so it's probably pretty likely that it'll work, but eh. you might have to build it yourself anyway. I might throw up a build script or something at some point in the unforeseeable future.


----------



## Aisling (Aug 11, 2012)

sorry it was hard for you to get going, res :c Thanks for doing that, though. I think I'll add that to the resources list, if that's cool with you!

So FNM was a draft tonight. Pack one I got Nefarox, Overlord of Grixis... for the rest of pack one I was passed cool black stuff and more stuff with Exalted. Pack two had Sublime Archangel. I figured it would probably be a good idea to play WB Exalted (plus holy shit sublime archangel is like $25)
I got in the top 8 (the two rounds I lost were to the guy who drafted had like four Searing Spears and two Murders and Bladetusk Boar) and the rares I got from the packs I won were kind of crummy but I traded one of those crummy rares for a dragon I needed for my EDH deck.
So  yeah tonight was a good night! Anybody else go to FNM?


----------



## Coloursfall (Aug 11, 2012)

Me and Sunny went but they only do Standard at our shop and like half my deck is from Conflux and Sunny has a load of Lorwyn cards, so we couldn't play :( it sucked.


----------



## Aisling (Aug 11, 2012)

Aw :< Bummer. Mtg.com has a Building on a Budget column that might be of interest (though definitely price check some of this stuff because the War Falcons article suggests a deck with 4 Bonfire of the Damned and holy shit that's _*expensive*_ not to mention 4 Cavern of Souls and Gavony Townships how is that building on a budget)

My RG deck was originally based on A Dog Lover's Guide to Dark Ascension, and while I think a couple cards got more popular since the article was published (like, Hellrider), a modified version without the Heroes of Oxid Ridge or Urabrasks probably wouldn't be too expensive to throw together. Relatively.
Another thing I'd suggest doing instead is maybe saving up for the Return to Ravnica prerelease in... October, I think it is? Everybody will be sort of on the same playing field (it's Sealed so it's kinda based on how good your packs are, but everybody gets 5 packs and a sixth one based on what Ravnica guild you choose-it sounds like it'll be neat!!) and it'd be an okay start on getting caught up to Standard. If anything, if you don't pull stuff you like you can trade with people for different things.


----------



## 1. Luftballon (Aug 11, 2012)

Alraune said:


> sorry it was hard for you to get going, res :c Thanks for doing that, though. I think I'll add that to the resources list, if that's cool with you!


well, is not so much actual difficulty as, no, not all linux users are linux, and this sort of unsupportful is part of what drives unwizarden from linux; I mean, it would be totally fine if, eh, the actual process detailed in the documentation _worked_, but as-is, windows and osx get precompiled binaries that are pretty much extract-and-run and which work roughly similarly to installation of anything else, while linux is expected to actually compile the damn thing from source _while reading the documentation-writer's mind_. ... most of us aren't telepaths, either, not to my knowledge.

but anyway, sure, I don't mind — I mean, I wouldn't should make it publicly-accessible if I minded, eh? caveats, though;


----------



## Abwayax (Aug 12, 2012)

Sure I'll join. I don't play tournaments (not even FNM), I only play with my playgroup so my decks are fairly non-competitive. Currently my favorite deck so far is a blue/white deck built around small flying vigilance guys like Hovermyrs and Serra Avengers backed up with removal (mainly Disenchant, Oblivion Ring, Path to exile, Journey to Nowhere) and Negate. My main enemy is a deck built almost entirely on red/black land destruction spells. I can kind of see why people dislike counter magic and land destruction, but I enjoy the challenge in playing against it. I enjoy the gameplay of magic as well as the lore, especially the pre-Time Spiral era stories.

I don't generally play online (although I do use cockatrice, but mainly for playtesting) but I'd be up for that. My username of course is adrianmalacoda. I do however use a program called Forge to play single player against AI opponents. It has a rules engine, which is cool, but no multiplayer or online play, which is _not_ cool (I might try my hand at adding that in if I have free time).

If I had to align with colors it'd be green and white first, blue and white second. I don't yet play EDH but as soon as I find people to play with I know which general I want to start with (_no, not Akroma_).


----------



## Aisling (Aug 12, 2012)

Adrian Malacoda said:


> Sure I'll join. I don't play tournaments (not even FNM), I only play with my playgroup so my decks are fairly non-competitive. Currently my favorite deck so far is a blue/white deck built around small flying vigilance guys like Hovermyrs and Serra Avengers backed up with removal (mainly Disenchant, Oblivion Ring, Path to exile, Journey to Nowhere) and Negate. My main enemy is a deck built almost entirely on red/black land destruction spells. I can kind of see why people dislike counter magic and land destruction, but I enjoy the challenge in playing against it. I enjoy the gameplay of magic as well as the lore, especially the pre-Time Spiral era stories.


Ooh! Serra Avenger is really good. I pulled one last week, or some short time ago, I think. I'd like to have some more, because I think instead of the BG idea I want to make a standard-competent version of the WB deck I drafted last night. She'd be pretty great in it. Hovermyr is also cool.



> I don't generally play online (although I do use cockatrice, but mainly for playtesting) but I'd be up for that. My username of course is adrianmalacoda. I do however use a program called Forge to play single player against AI opponents. It has a rules engine, which is cool, but no multiplayer or online play, which is _not_ cool (I might try my hand at adding that in if I have free time).


Hm! That's interesting. I think I'll add that to the Resource list~



> If I had to align with colors it'd be green and white first, blue and white second. I don't yet play EDH but as soon as I find people to play with I know which general I want to start with (_no, not Akroma_).


I always end up building Jund-y colors (red, green, black, any combination of those) but I always test as being white, and green second. But since people are much more complex than that I personally identify as Bant. :p

I've been playing around with a design for a WU aven planeswalker-sona because I'm an awful person

Also I'm pretty excited that a lot of you guys have a bunch of fun-sounding-but-not-standard decks. I have a lot of fun-decks I've built online but not IRL that I don't really have anyone to play against with because they're not fast enough for legacy or modern or any actual format if I were to play against strangers. I play 'em once or twice with my boyfriend and that's it. :B Like... WU griffins, mono red dwarves, Rebecca Guay-themed (because she's my fav artist)... maybe we should have, like, a Thursday Night Magic or something on Cockatrice for all our fun decks!


----------



## Abwayax (Aug 12, 2012)

Serra Avenger is neat because she would ordinarily be costed at 2WW anyway (between Diving Griffin's 1WW and Serra Angel's 3WW). I actually ended up taking Diving Griffin and Serra Angel out of my deck so I could pack more removal and land in it, and it seems to work out fine. By turn 4 I'll be able to slam down 2 of them, or one and a spirit mantle, or just one and then negate the inevitable counter or doom blade.

My first deck ever was a green/white/blue (or "bant" if you rather) deck built around Captain Sisay, using her tutor ability to fetch various legends. Basically a 100-card toolbox deck. Time of Need, Eladamri's Call etc to get her or Rofellos, Llanowar Emissary out ASAP and then churn out mucho mana. Slam down Patron of the Orochi and Minamo, School at Water's Edge so I can untap and reuse Sisay and Rofellos an obscene amount of times. The best ending is when I drop Akroma's Memorial (_of course_) and then just start knocking players out of the game one by one... once I was at 1 life and I managed to save myself by throwing down the Memorial. My playgroup told me to put that deck away because they were tired of the constant tutoring. It wasn't the most efficient deck, I had to pack it with tutors to make it run consistently and that made it pretty slow.

When I start playing EDH I feel like my first deck will be a deck built around Volrath the Fallen and Relentless Rats. Black isn't my usual color so it'd be an interesting experience. The game plan would be to use Volraths discard ability to throw rats into the graveyard, reanimate them with Living Death or somesuch. Probably not the best of deck ideas but most decks using Volrath just pitch big eldrazi creatures or whatever to him.

I'd be down for playing with y'all online some time :)


----------



## Negrek (Aug 13, 2012)

Online "casual deck" nights sound fun! It'd be cool to try updating my old cleric deck with some of the new cards that have been released in recent years... that was my first ever "serious" deck (albeit still so terrible), so I'm rather fond of it.

I tend to build/play with all the colors almost equally, depending on my mood at the time. Red/green if I'm more of a "blow stuff up" kind of mood, blue/black if I'm feeling more "I laugh at your tears," etc. I'm personally blue/black splashing red, though, or maybe blue/red splashing black, so I'll be supporting Izzet and Dimir for RtR, naturally. I figured I would try to go to a prerelease to get back into the games a bit... hopefully it won't end up conflicting with the October VGC qualifier. >>


----------



## Superbird (Aug 13, 2012)

I've been meaning to start on this. But basically all I've got is a basic black/blue deck - I'll see how it works out when I join nerd club this school year...


----------



## Storm Earth and Fire (Aug 13, 2012)

Nice to see others playing Magic.

I've been playing since Fifth Dawn's release, about eight years ago now. Sporting a R/G beast precon from Onslaught. I've come a long way, after Zendikar's release I began giving tournaments a shot.

Casually, I don't have a lot of kitchen table decks left. Remaining are a w/b/G Thallids deck, a U/G snakes (but not the Kamigawa kind because snakes don't have limbs) deck, and possibly other stuff, but I haven't played casually outside of EDH much.

EDH. Heck of a format. I've got four decks, none of them particularly good, especially against some of my friends who have spent quite a bit of money on theirs, but fun to play.

Generals:
- Intet, the Dreamer: Ramp to the general and use her to hold and cast free spells. Packed with gigantic cards, instants, and cards to deal lethal general damage, netting more Intet activations in the process with double strike.
- Kaalia of the Vast: Beefed up version of the original precon. Same idea, but now has the lethal Oni of the Wild + Rakdos, the Defiler combo, tutors like Blood Speaker and Rune-Scarred Demon, and the remnants of a casual angels deck.
- Mayael the Anima: Nothing really special here, just scoop up the top five and pick a fatty.
- Merieke Ri Berit: A deck with cards that do nothing but steal stuff and wipe the board. The win condition is your deck, as a friend of mine put it.

Tournament stuff... Only have one Standard deck right now, G/W Humans. Previous Standard decks were usually cheap, simple, decks with an outside chance. Before this was Mono-White Knights. And before that I was running either Standard Enchantress or Runeflare Trap.

I used to play Legacy. My deck of choice was a bog standard Legacy Enchantress, which evolved into a more toolboxy build. For some time I ran a singleton Lignify, which was an endless source of giggling. Dark Confidant is now a tree! Iona is now... a tree! However, Legacy attendance was declining, my Legacy-loving friend swore off the format after Survival of the Fittest (his favorite card) got banned, and so I sadly sold the deck after going to a few final tournaments. On the bright side, I profited almost $140.

What else... I have a MODO account, but all I've done is a few drafts. I have never used Cockatrice, but plenty of people do, so I should jump on that eventually.


----------



## Aisling (Aug 17, 2012)

Ooh, I have a copy of Intet! I might build something around it someday. It seems pretty cool. And I discovered recently my boyfriend has a Mayael and I really want him to use her for something, since his colors are Naya. Then again, my first EDH deck is definitely not Bant, so. I can't really decide on a Bant general.

Also a friend of mine from uni had a WG humans deck that at the time was worth almost $200... but he never had the chance to go to FNM with it because he was a doormat and friends with this really controlling douchebag. It had like, so many Gavony Townships and Angelic Destinies and at least a couple Gideons. It was fun to play against in the upstairs lobby at least, because everything I played against it was usually pretty close.

edit: omg 2000th post wow took me long enough


----------



## Coloursfall (Aug 18, 2012)

Hey look guys I made a thing, you interested?


----------



## Aisling (Aug 18, 2012)

Coloursfall said:


> Hey look guys I made a thing, you interested?


Ooh, fun! Something to do with that planeswalker I've been working on.

teensiest tiniest nitpick though, I don't know if he still does it but Nicol Bolas has a tendency to shut down other dragon planeswalkers when he finds them. Like, not to say draconic planeswalkers are impossible I mean the multiverse is a big place but it'd be fun/challenging if Nicol got involved somehow. (or Sarkhan!! aaa) Or was that already planned? Or can we know? :p


----------



## Coloursfall (Aug 18, 2012)

Alraune said:


> Ooh, fun! Something to do with that planeswalker I've been working on.
> 
> teensiest tiniest nitpick though, I don't know if he still does it but Nicol Bolas has a tendency to shut down other dragon planeswalkers when he finds them. Like, not to say draconic planeswalkers are impossible I mean the multiverse is a big place but it'd be fun/challenging if Nicol got involved somehow. (or Sarkhanl!! aaa) Or was that already planned? Or can we know? :p


Heehee it's a seeecret ;3c

She may be flying under the radar for now, though, as her favoured form isn't terribly big-scary-dragon for the most part. But when she takes her real form again... _shit may go down_ ;Dc


----------



## Abwayax (Aug 19, 2012)

I'm not normally an RPer but the setting is interesting. One sorta minor nitpick though: Planeswalkers don't have the ability to shape shift anymore. That was the old planeswalkers like Urza and Serra, in the time before the Mending (the conclusion of Time Spiral block). Back then planeswalkers essentially lived forever and had complete control of their own bodies and of matter, could create their own planes, etc. Planeswalkers since Time Spiral block (the ones depicted on cards) are essentially just ordinary folk who can planeswalk.


----------



## Coloursfall (Aug 19, 2012)

I liked the shapeshift-y thing though :( I p. much just said 'screw it' and kept it anyway, 'cause I mean they can summon giant monsters and stuff they can learn spells to change what they look like if they want. 

Colours stop picking and choosing your canon


----------



## Abwayax (Aug 19, 2012)

Coloursfall said:


> I p. much just said 'screw it' and kept it anyway, 'cause I mean they can summon giant monsters and stuff they can learn spells to change what they look like if they want.


Form of the Dragon exists, so fair point. They should do more cards like that.



Alraune said:


> teensiest tiniest nitpick though, I don't know if he still does it but Nicol Bolas has a tendency to shut down other dragon planeswalkers when he finds them.


Bolas did destroy Ugin the spirit dragon planeswalker, but Ugin had something Bolas wanted, so that doesn't say much.


----------



## Storm Earth and Fire (Aug 19, 2012)

Form of the Dragon was made before the revision, though.

Mind you, I don't really care, because I don't think I've fully gotten over the revision myself.


----------



## Aisling (Aug 19, 2012)

Storm said:


> Form of the Dragon was made before the revision, though.
> 
> Mind you, I don't really care, because I don't think I've fully gotten over the revision myself.


Well, yeah, but it's canon that Sarkhan Vol can turn into a dragon temporarily, as of Zendikar. His magic is closely tied to dragons, but still. (Hence why he is on the reprint of Form of the Dragon)


----------



## Spatz (Aug 19, 2012)

I'm part of this.

I only joined the gathering during theZendikar/Rise of the Eldrazi era, though I was introduced to it much earlier.

I've got several decks, though not many are worth using in competitive play due to a usual lack of strategy (not to mention my preference to use all of the cards I have...). My main decks are a Black/Red Vampire deck tha makes the most of the Stromkirk Captain, and a Green/Red deck that is essentially a slightly changed version of the Undying G/R pre-construted deck, adding Howlgeists and Grisebrand's Hound to make better use of the Undying keyword.

NOW!

On to the topic of shapeshifting: I feel that, despite the whole removal of the inherit ability post-Mending, Planeswalkers should be able to access magics tht allow them to forcively change their form, though doing so would be a large drain to mana and they would have to recuperate in order to be able to do anything afterwards...


----------



## Aisling (Aug 19, 2012)

Interestingly, the first cards I ever actually bought were a Zendikar intro deck! I didn't play back then, honestly I just bought it because the foil Hellkite Charger that came in it was really pretty. It's now one of my favorite cards and I'm trying to figure out how to fit Bear Umbra into my EDH deck so I can have the infinite combat combo...

And brofist for more BR vampire players!

Yeah, shapeshifting to just one or two forms makes sense to me. Sarkhan has devoted his entire life to dragons, so it makes sense that on occasion he can transform himself (or at least his hands) into one. A planeswalker with a similar devotion to a single sort of creature being able to transform is understandable.


----------



## Abwayax (Aug 19, 2012)

Storm said:


> Form of the Dragon was made before the revision, though.


The mending was more about limiting the power of planeswalkers in the storyline so they could be more relatable to players (and so they could be printed on cards). As planeswalkers, we were never quite at the power level of characters such as Urza. If anything, the mending brings planeswalkers closer to the power level of a player. 



Alraune said:


> Well, yeah, but it's canon that Sarkhan Vol can turn into a dragon temporarily, as of Zendikar. His magic is closely tied to dragons, but still. (Hence why he is on the reprint of Form of the Dragon)


Regrettably, neither of his cards can turn into a dragon, although Sarkhan the Mad can turn other creatures into dragons for some reason.



Lirris said:


> I'm part of this.
> 
> I only joined the gathering during theZendikar/Rise of the Eldrazi era, though I was introduced to it much earlier.


Welcome to our cult club, fellow Planeswalker! The very first cards I played were from Seventh Edition, but I only really got into it right when Innistrad came out, so I'm actually a noob in comparison to most everyone here. :)



Lirris said:


> On to the topic of shapeshifting: I feel that, despite the whole removal of the inherit ability post-Mending, Planeswalkers should be able to access magics tht allow them to forcively change their form, though doing so would be a large drain to mana and they would have to recuperate in order to be able to do anything afterwards...


It really depends on the character in question. As noted before, Sarkhan can cast Form of the Dragon, but it's not related to his planeswalker's spark in any way. Sarkhan can become a dragon because it's a power he learned as a dragon shaman earlier in his life. If Sarkhan were to lose his spark, he'd still be able to become a dragon.


----------



## Zexion (Aug 19, 2012)

I remember my first deck. It was one of the _Alara: Reborn_. The deck was _Unnatural Schemes_, the deck centered around the Shard of Grixis. I still use this deck to this day, though I have added another 4 other decks to my collection. One of them is the Shamanism deck from _Morningtide_, the second is the Devouring Skies deck from _New Phyrexia_, while the other two are hand-built. One of the hand-built is centered around White, Green, and Blue mana. The other centers around Red and Black mana, though it does Green and Blue on a couple of creatures.

With the shape-shifting topic up, I'll stay out of it.


----------



## Coloursfall (Aug 19, 2012)

I still use the basic idea of my first deck! It was a Conflux structure deck, _Jund Appetite for War_. Jund is still my very favourite, and I typically play Red anyway when not using my Jund deck. 

I prefer playing Vintage, as I can use all my favourite cards. None of the game shops around here play it though, just Standard. :C Standard is just a big cash grab if you ask me.


----------



## Abwayax (Aug 20, 2012)

That's the exact reason I stay out of tournament magic entirely; my favorite cards tend to be unsuitable for constructed tournament play and/or aren't standard legal. Vintage is probably the least supported format because it's difficult for Wizards to really profit off a format based on old out of print cards, and they can't really print any new cards good enough for vintage play without impacting standard play (although I heard one or two of the new commander cards are fairly playable in legacy?).

I wonder though, why vintage instead of legacy? You might have an easier time finding people that play legacy.


----------



## Coloursfall (Aug 20, 2012)

I haven't really looked into Legacy very much (Vintage was my first format), all I know is that it's like Vintage with a banlist but I'm not sure how correct that is? I probably just haven't bothered with it much yet as I normally just play with friends, and one of them makes heavy use of Un cards and those aren't anything-legal :B


----------



## Storm Earth and Fire (Aug 20, 2012)

Just note that Vintage and Legacy are both rather expensive formats to get into. (I talked a bit about my own forays into Legacy in my opening post) That is, if you want to build a deck that can actually beat someone. If you just want to mess around without having a thousand dollar collection, unfortunately you gotta stick to the casual table. Standard tournaments are, however, a good place to find someone to play a pickup game against. Because of how accessible the format is, you'll probably find someone with some casual decks you can play against.

The key difference between Vintage and Legacy is that Vintage has a restricted list, the listed cards are limited to one copy per deck, and Legacy has a banned list, you can't use those cards at all. Vintage also has a banned list, but it's nothing but ante cards, manual dexterity cards, Chaos Orb, and Shahrazad.

Vintage is funny because it's a format other tournament players often whisper about, going on about decks that are expected to kill someone within the first four turns. Gigantic turn one counter wars are fought over an Ancestral Recall. Slash Panther, a card that is otherwise very mediocre, is one of the most lethal creatures in the format. And just as often, it devolves into two decks attacking each other with Dark Confidant over and over again.

Legacy is more fun IMO. It's (usually) a more open format, much cheaper to play (cheapest competitive deck possible is around $90, as opposed to over $600 for Vintage), and there is actual sanctioned play if you sniff around. Stores in the Dallas area run Saturday Legacy tournaments, which is where I got my fix.

But back to the flavor discussion, they haven't really made any duds for me flavorwise after the revision, except for Zendikar, so I'm okay with it for the most part. What is everyone's favorite block/setting? My favorites are Ravnica and Otaria (Odyssey and Onslaught block's setting).


----------



## Aisling (Aug 20, 2012)

I like reading about the Alara block, but Zendikar block has a lot of cards I enjoy. But then, so does Innistrad... Hellrider and Bloodline Keeper are a couple of my favorite cards. Oh, but Myr Battlesphere!... Damn ): Picking favorites is so hard.
Lorwyn lore is pretty fun to read about, too, plus a good chunk of my legacy elf deck is from that block. I've also heard Lorwyn is a really fun block for Limited (so maybe we should try it sometime?)


----------



## Negrek (Aug 20, 2012)

Good ol' Dominaria is definitely my favorite, followed by Mirrodin--not surprisingly, the settings that were being featured at the time that I was playing the most. I was pretty disappointed that the Phyrexians ended up conquering Mirrodin, although it was obvious from the get-go who was going to win that war.

While they've introduced lots of cool places in recent sets, I really do miss Dominaria. I know they wanted to inject some more variety into the game and open up the ability to do some really funky things, but personally I don't feel the need to go swinging off to an entirely new plane with each new block. Of course, now we're seeing the reintroduction of some planes, what with the (unfortunate) second Mirrodin block and the upcoming "Return to Ravnica," so I can hold out hoping we'll see more of Dominaria in a few years.

Also not a big fan of the Mending. Yes, from a narrative standpoint it was a good decision because old-school planeswalkers are gigantic, raging Mary-Sues--_but that was what made them so much fun!_


----------



## Abwayax (Aug 23, 2012)

Hard for me to say, really. Zendikar was pretty sweet, although I wish Rise of the Eldrazi was more mechanically connected to the first two sets. Innistrad isn't half bad either. Dominaria of course is awesome but last time we were there it was ravaged by slivers, I think... which we'll probably see sometime in the near future, so I wouldn't rule out a return to Dominaria.

I personally wish we got to see more of Old Phyrexia. I think it was featured on some cards from Urza's Saga, but that's it.


----------



## Zexion (Aug 26, 2012)

yay! Yay! YAY!

First Planeswalker, EVER! I bought a Deck-Builders kit yesterday, and in the 2013 Core Set booster pack was the pyro planeswalker, Chandra. I have built two decks from that box. One focusing on Angels and Humans. The other is Vampire themed. Two more at least to come!

Chandra is in a protective sleeve. On her own. Sitting with my Dual-Sided cards.


----------



## Abwayax (Aug 27, 2012)

Congratulations on your find! :) The first planeswalker I pulled was Liliana of the Veil from the Innistrad set... 

Has anyone else read any of the novels? I just finished _Time Spiral_... probably not the ideal first read, but I enjoyed it nevertheless


----------



## Ven (Aug 27, 2012)

I just bought the Vampire Onslaught deck and also got Vampire Nocturnis. I love them both.

Also, the first Planeswalker was Jace the Memory Adept.


----------



## Aisling (Aug 27, 2012)

Adrian Malacoda said:


> Congratulations on your find! :) The first planeswalker I pulled was Liliana of the Veil from the Innistrad set...


She was my first, too!

The first ones I ever owned though was a couple Chandra Nalaar from Zendikar. They were for the first deck I ever built on my own, the red/black casual one. I think by now they've both been traded away... I know I gave one of them to a good friend for his cube, so I know she's in good hands now.


----------



## Aisling (Aug 28, 2012)

So double posting oops sorry but INTERESTING DEVELOPMENT TODAY

That friend I gave the Chandra to has a problem, I think. Every couple days or so he goes to our local shop and just buys a shitton of things (understandable because everything is like 20% off the StarCity price like wow what-- except he kinda buys stuff on impulse), and earlier today he bought a Zendikar booster pack hoping to get a fetch land and instead he pulled





His of the opinion the thing is that it's pretty useless, because losing a turn isn't worth an extra turn (and even if you just skip a turn in which you wouldn't have been able to do something anyway, you should've been doing _something_ instead and are probably losing). But I immediately saw some potential for this thing, especially for casual play.
At first I thought maybe you could just proliferate the eon counters and have a ton of extra turns, but then I realized since it bounces itself back into your hand, it would lose all those counters after the first time you trigger it.
So I did some thinking... returning Magosi to your hand is part of the cost for taking an extra turn, right? So if you had a way to copy the _result_ of that ability, you could get two extra turns. What could do that?





These things. Now, if you had a couple of these things, four mana, plus a way to play Magosi as your land for turn and it come into play untapped, you could theoretically gain infinite turns. Which brings me to a card I spied in a bargain bin while I was searching for stuff to put in my EDH deck...





Bam!

So I've been trying to think of ways to get this combo out most effectively. I know I could use Trinket Mages to look for the Amulets, but are there any nice budget tutors to look for slightly more expensive artifacts (the rings) or lands (Magosi)? Also I've been pondering a win con. Merfolk maybe? Stuff that spawns lots of tokens? Or just take those turns to beef up an Invisible Stalker? Maybe blue things with Landfall, if those are things. I'll have to look.

Any thoughts? Magosi is kinda tricky in the way it counts the turns you skip and the turns you actually gain, but there might be other ways to make it work besides an Amulet of Vigor and two Rings of Brighthearth.


----------



## Abwayax (Aug 28, 2012)

Fabricate? Same CMC but it's a sorcery and not a creature, which may or may not be relevant. Sylvan Scrying for lands, but that's green (I don't think there are any land tutor effects in blue).


----------



## Storm Earth and Fire (Aug 30, 2012)

Magosi is great because Wizards tried their hardest to make it not work, and it really doesn't except through convoluted processes.

Along with all that, you need some way to play extra lands, otherwise you won't really go anywhere. Exploration is way out of your budget. Walking Atlas, perhaps? It's an artifact so if you find a way to search artifacts then you can look it up too.

The really painful part is that you still have to skip your turn to put a counter on in the first place, but that's not an easy thing to get around.


----------



## Abwayax (Sep 3, 2012)

Storm said:


> Magosi is great because Wizards tried their hardest to make it not work, and it really doesn't except through convoluted processes.


Yeah, they figured people would see the phrase "extra turn" and then freak out before realizing this is not very usable at all.



Storm said:


> Along with all that, you need some way to play extra lands, otherwise you won't really go anywhere.


Are you sure? 

Here's how I see it. Assuming you've got both rings and the amulet on the field already, play Magosi and give it a eon counter. During your next turn (the one after the one you skipped) activate Magosi and bounce it to your hand, copying its ability twice with the rings, and then replay Magosi and tap it for the eon counter again, skipping your first extra turn. During your second extra turn, you can repeat this process for 2 more extra turns. 

Maybe you meant we need to play lands to keep the game going because Magosi takes up our land drop each turn, but we don't need any more mana because as long as we have the 5 mana necessary to keep the engine going we will be able to win with landfall. I suggest Hedron Crabs as a wincon. Equip Trepanation Blades to the crabs for extra hilarity. Alternatively, run Laboratory Maniac and crab _yourself_.


----------



## Storm Earth and Fire (Sep 6, 2012)

You pose a good point.

But then that got me thinking, since Magosi bounces itself, why not just play it twice in one turn to accelerate the process?

Cards like Ley Druid let you untap it as soon as you've put a counter on.


----------



## Abwayax (Sep 6, 2012)

You just _inspired_ me, sir.







Play Magosi and tap for the eon counter, attack with this (again, I suggest Hedron Crabs with Trepanation Blades) and then in the second main phase tap Magosi again for the extra turn. Now we've got more possibilities because this frees up our mana for our first main phase.

I'm sure there are more _effective_ things to slap this umbra on, but just imagine four hedron crabs each wearing one of these.


----------



## Aisling (Sep 7, 2012)

My favorite use of Bear Umbra is with Hellkite Charger. B]

but...! I hadn't thought of using it with Magosi. You'd still also need the Rings of Brighthearth, but with Bear Umbra you never have to actually _skip_ a turn (by that I mean, your opponent never gets their free turn before the combo starts). At least if I'm understanding it correctly.


So has anybody been keeping up with the Return to Ravnica spoilers? The new Planeswalker looks SO GOOD! (no, I don't mean Jace...) I don't know if I want to pick Selesnya or Golgari at the prerelease now... though I'm pretty sure for standard I'm gonna play either black/white/green or Jund (I've been mulling over the idea of making a commitment to Jund in Standard until Sarkhan is printed again)...

I wonder what will come of blue as we currently know it. So many of the good new spells are also uncounterable. Like, enough of them are uncounterable that I'd say it'll make blue counterspells practically unviable for limited. It may warp the meta in older formats, too...

also *dual lands at common*


----------



## Ven (Sep 7, 2012)

So, what does everyone think of the new duel decks that came out? Personally, I like the Golgari deck. Especially in EDH. Can't wait to try them out.


----------



## Abwayax (Sep 8, 2012)

Alraune said:


> You'd still also need the Rings of Brighthearth, but with Bear Umbra you never have to actually _skip_ a turn (by that I mean, your opponent never gets their free turn before the combo starts). At least if I'm understanding it correctly.


You still need the rings, but since Bear Umbra untaps your lands in the middle of your turn, you can use that 4 mana for something else during your first main phase before using it to power the rings during your second. Opens up a few more possibilities IMHO.



Alraune said:


> So has anybody been keeping up with the Return to Ravnica spoilers? The new Planeswalker looks SO GOOD! (no, I don't mean Jace...) I don't know if I want to pick Selesnya or Golgari at the prerelease now...


If I can find time to attend the prerelease I'd probably go selesnya, azorious, or izzet. I'm still waiting for more cards to be spoiled before I decide for certain. I do like that Judge's Familiar and Dryad Militant, though. Dreadbore kind of bothers me from a flavor standpoint and also because I feel planeswalkers should be harder to get rid of than creatures, but maybe that's just me.



Ven said:


> So, what does everyone think of the new duel decks that came out? Personally, I like the Golgari deck. Especially in EDH. Can't wait to try them out.


I'm more excited by the izzet deck. I might pick up a copy or two. I do kind of wish these decks had more 3-ofs and 4-ofs, though, but I understand they have to cram as many different cards into them as possible.


----------



## Storm Earth and Fire (Sep 9, 2012)

Alraune said:


> So has anybody been keeping up with the Return to Ravnica spoilers? The new Planeswalker looks SO GOOD! (no, I don't mean Jace...) I don't know if I want to pick Selesnya or Golgari at the prerelease now... though I'm pretty sure for standard I'm gonna play either black/white/green or Jund (I've been mulling over the idea of making a commitment to Jund in Standard until Sarkhan is printed again)...


Probably going with Selesnya at the prerelease. Haven't really been brewing new deck ideas, so I'll just see what I can add to G/W humans. Fencing Ace might be worth a shot now that we have Rancor again.

Vraska looks amazing. Got the gears turning in my head over a new Junkwalkers deck (W/B/G planeswalker control). Unfortunately, that would be a really expensive deck to put together, so it's been shelved indefinitely.


----------



## Abwayax (Oct 1, 2012)

Who here has gone to the prerelease? I couldn't go, because I had other commitments...


----------



## Negrek (Oct 1, 2012)

Was really excited to go, then discovered that actually there were none easily accessible to me that weren't already full (?!) or wouldn't end after all the trains had stopped running.

So disappoint. :(


----------



## Aisling (Oct 3, 2012)

I played Selesnya at my prerelease. A Detention Sphere and a Pithing Needle were all that I really pulled. My boyfriend pulled way better Selesnya stuff, but he signed up for Azorius >:( (but I got the Detention Sphere lol so I guess it evens out) I had a blast though, I really hope they do the "choose your guild" thing in Gatecrash with the boxes and stuff!

Once everybody got to top 8 they just split the prizes, one guy pulled two Vraskas (one of which is foil)


----------



## Storm Earth and Fire (Oct 4, 2012)

I went 4-1 at the prerelease I went to, playing Selesnya. My pool had 2 Selesnya Guildgates, 1 Azorius Guildgate, 1 Hallowed Fountain, and 2 Transguild Promenade, along with a Selesnya and Azorius Keyrune, so I had my colors super fixed. I opened an Isperia to act as bomb #2. The meat of my deck was Centaur Healer, Herald, and Call of the Conclave, with populate being provided by 2-3 copies of Druid's Deliverance, 1 Rootborn Defenses, 1 Eyes in the Skies, a Wayfaring Temple, and the ever so crazy Vitu-Ghazi Guildmage. I also have a Fencing Ace 'package' with 2 Giant Growth, 1 Common Bond, and 1 Slitherhead. Unrelated to the playable part of my pool, I got a foil Ash Zealot.

Detain is crazy, but I managed to brute force my way past the Azorius. My Swiss round loss was to a Selesnya deck that was really similar to mine, but he edged me out. Top 8 played out and I lost in a slugfest against a no block Rakdos deck.

My prize packs gave me another Hallowed Fountain, a Supreme Verdict, a Loxodon Smiter, and a regular Ash Zealot.

And it shouldn't surprise anyone if a prerelease was full. This is the most anticipated set ever, Wizards prepared more product for prerelease than ever before, and they still ran short.


----------



## Abwayax (Dec 16, 2012)

Happy holidays, fellow Planeswalkers!

I'm currently tweaking my casual (non-standard) green/white proliferate deck. Current strategy is to use token generators (Selesnya Charm, Call of the Conclave, etc) and then put down a Wayfaring Temple, equipped with Fists of Ironwood and keep hitting at em. I also threw in Armadillo Cloaks because they're awesome, although I'm currently thinking Behemoth Sledge might be a better option...


----------



## Abwayax (Jan 27, 2013)

I attended the Gatecrash prerelease tonight... it was my first ever prerelease (first ever sanctioned Magic event actually). I was utterly destroyed, but I enjoyed all of it.

I chose Simic as my guild and just basically threw in a bunch of evolve guys and some spells. I think my big problem is that I didn't get any good one drops or any real bombs in my colors (best I had was Merfolk of the Depths, and he seemed pretty overcosted), so it might have been a better decision to throw in a third color... I noticed most of my opponents were running three-color decks. My favorite move was probably ciphering Hands of Binding to Drakewing Krasis... I'd get to keep a guy locked down for a turn or two before it ate removal.

Overall I enjoyed it, and I'll probably be attending the prerelease for Dragon's Maze as well


----------



## Negrek (Jan 28, 2013)

I went to a Gatecrash prerelease, and it was my first-ever sanctioned event as well! I had loads of fun. I was playing Dimir, because I'm a Dimir and of course Dimir is the best guild, and was blessed with an absolutely insane card pool: Whispering Madness, Undercity Plague, and Stolen Identity to complement my Consuming Aberration; Dimir Charm and Psychic Strike both x2; and a fantastic run of removal spells from Rapid Hybridization up through Grisly Spectacle, often in multiples. I ended up leaving a ton of cards on the table that would have been instant-picks under ordinary circumstances because I had too many good spells, and what I needed was creatures, which turned out to be... rather more dodgy. I had no problem getting evasive creatures, and there was no point that I was holding a Cipher card and being frustrated because I wouldn't be able to get through for more than one use of it, but in general my creatures were noticeable wimps, especially at the higher end of the curve, and if I couldn't lock things down with removal or cipher-advantage out of the gate, I tended to be pretty screwed.

I did pretty well for not having played sealed before ever by going 2-2 and at least never getting blown out, but it's a pity I had to have such a ridiculous pull be wasted on me being rusty and extremely sleep deprived... I just left games on the table through stupid mistakes most of the time, rather than eviscerating people . But it was still loads of fun to play, and I'll definitely be building a cipher-y deck for casual play out of the core I picked up here.

Funnily enough, Whispering Madness was actually one card I was _really hoping_ to pull just on account of the artwork; when I first saw it I really wasn't a fan of the weird perspective and bulbous head thing, but since then his ridiculous "heh heh heh" expression has really grown on me--it's so Dimir!--and I decided it was hilarious and awesome. I'm also definitely going to be on the lookout for a Syndic of Tithes because I adore the beautifully evil half-smirk the guy's got on, even though you won't be able to see it as well on the actual card.

I went to this event with a friend, and he says he's definitely down for the Dragon's Maze prerelease in a couple of months... maybe this time I'll be able to convince the two other people who said they might want to come but eventually declined to actually follow through this time! Also, turns out there's a group on campus that does EDH and the odd draft... so it looks like I'll finally be able to get back into Magic after something like six years or so away. My precious, precious cardboard crack!

tl;dr Gatecrash prerelease was great, Dimir is best guild, I <3 Magic.


----------



## I liek Squirtles (Jun 21, 2016)

Mega bump

I did a bit of digging to find out when the next prerelease is, and I found out it's smackdab in the middle of a trip I'll be taking, which is really disappointing. I was excited to actually play with something that isn't a Welcome Deck. 

This Friday, though, I'm heading down to the game store to get in some practice. Pretty sure I'll be shredded to bits, but the experience is what counts.


----------

